The big knit

I’ve finished making little hats and have delivered them to my local Age UK store. Look how many I made!

I’m really chuffed with how many I got done and I’ve really enjoyed making them. The last lot were all just more bobble hats, sun hats etc, so rather than showing you them, I thought I’d do a round up of the lot.

There were 7 ducks

18 elephants 4 fantasy creatures 12 assorted creatures including a few mystery creatures 😉 There were 49 sun hats

And 114 bobble hats, (one if which snuck into the sun hat photo).

The grand total was 204 which I’m rather chuffed with, especially as I was originally aiming for 50. I’m very keen to crochet something a bit bigger now though. I just need to pick which of my WIPs I carry on with. Definitely no new starts until they’re finished.

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The big knit

My oddments bag is now empty. The only yarn left over from other projects now is all full balls. My yarn drawers look so much tidier.

I made lots of plain hats to use up the scraps, but had a brainwave and did the bobbles with two colours, which I think looks really nice. It’s also faster to make them. I fancied making some bluebells. I’m not sure if they look like actual bluebells but they’re blue and bell shaped and I even tried making a leaf for one of them. A couple more bobble hats made their way into the photo too.

Those took my total up to 150!

I needed to use the last few oddments so I made more bobble hats. I also made a start on the remaining Poundland yarn.Next I thought I’d make a few more assorted sun hats. That brings the grand total to ummmm, 183? I’m scheduling this post a couple of weeks in advance, so I reckon I can get to 200 before the deadline, and then I can get back to some of my other crochet projects.

The big knit

I finally got around to using some of the lovely new variegated yarn from the Poundshop. It’s so pretty! And, I got eleven hats out of one ball. At one point I got a bit quackers. There are some assorted hats, some using variegated yarn, but mostly using up more oddments. I’m really pleased with the orange/blue stripey one. The problem with doing stripes when you’re working in a spiral, is that the joins look really odd. I had an idea that if I had two colours going at the same time, with both going round in a spiral, it’d look better, and it does. It was quite fiddly to do though.

Finally, I was so chuffed at getting so many hats done that I went a bit bananas… I made that up as I went along. It was easy enough, it just took a little longer than a simple hat. I liked the little stem that I put on the top and thought it could turn a frilly hat into a bellflower so I made some of those too.

I think that’s another 33 hats and the oddments bag is almost empty. Just a bit more to use up and then back onto Poundland yarns.

The big knit

I’ve made another thirty hats for the Innocent Smoothies Big Knit, taking my total up to one hundred!

I’ve been concentrating on using up odd part-balls of yarn left over from blanket making so the latest batch look a bit samey.

The first ten are elephants again. I made mostly two-tone ones this time.

The next ten are a mix of different pompom hats. And so are the next ten, still using up oddments. I love that variegated yarn for making pompoms. It brightens up the more boring colour hats very nicely indeed.

So, I said I wanted to do 100 hats and I’ve got there. I’ve still got time to do more though so the aim now is to finish using all the oddments and then see how much of that pretty Poundland yarn I can get through before the deadline.

The big knit

I’ve been very busy with my little hats recently. I’m getting quite fast at making simple bobble hats and have been mostly concentrating on those. I’ve used some lovely yarn from the pound shop. It was on offer at three for £2 so I ended up buying six balls. There’s a sparkly white one, a pastel variegated and a slightly brighter one. There’s also a very bright variegated one with a short colour-change that makes great bobbles.

I made a couple of creatures. I made them up as I went along so we’re calling them fantasy creatures as they don’t resemble anything real.

I made a couple more sun hats.

Most of these are one of the pretty variegated yarns. It makes lovely striped hats without having to change yarns. The other is the brighter one.

This is mostly the more pastel variegated yarn. I used the sparkly white one for the bobbles and I think they look pretty.

That’s another twenty for the collection taking my total up to seventy. I should have no problem getting to one hundred at this rate.

I’ve been back to the Pound shop since making these to get more yarn as I’d run out of two of the variegated ones. I got a nice dusty pink and a sparkly purple one too.

I also found another variegated one at a different pound shop, which I haven’t photographed but you’ll see made up very soon.

The big knit

I’ve been busy crocheting little hats again and have quite a few to show you. I thought I’d do a few more simple hats, as they all raise the same amount of money, regardless of whether they take 30 mins to do or several hours.

This is the first batch that I did. I really must stop using the coloured googly eyes. The black ones look fine but the pink, yellow and green ones look quite creepy!

I saw on The Big Knit Facebook page that some people had found multi-coloured yarn at Poundland and thought it’d make a nice change to do some really brightly coloured ones. I found the yarn ok in our local store but as it was on offer at 3 for £2, I got a couple of the other colours. Then I spotted another colour that I wanted so ended up with six balls in the end LOL

There were three multi-coloured ones, a really bright one with a very short colour-change, which made a nice sun hat. (I’m thinking it’d make a nice psychedelic elephant!) There are two pastel ones with a longer colour-change. I took one of them with me to the Craft Group meeting at work and made a few bobble hats plus another elephant. The bright yarn makes lovely bobbles! Ruth brought along one that she’d made to add to my collection. Isn’t it pretty! I made another octopus. I may make more. They’re quick, easy and fun to do. I got a booklet in a crochet magazine that had patterns in to make egg cosies. They’d come out way too big if I followed the patterns exactly as they’re in 4-ply and I’m using DK, but with a bit of adapting, I managed to make a dragon. He’s a punk dragon!

I also made a unicorn. One of the Poundland yarns was a white with sparkle which screamed Unicorn at me. I used the other colour-change yarn to do his mane and tummy.

That brings the total up to 50, so halfway to my target.

The big knit

And there are more! I downloaded some more patterns from Jo’s Big Knit and had fun making some of them. There are several crochet patterns there but mostly they’re knitted ones. I found enough crochet ones to keep me out of mischief for a while though.

I liked the pig, especially his wiggly tail. The sunhat is one of my ‘make it up as I go along ones’. I did a rabbit and a rat. I couldn’t fathom out the instructions for the rabbit’s ears so I made my own. They both have tails, one a pompom and one a long thin one. I loved the frog pattern and the octopus was fun to do as well. I may make more of them at some point. I did a few more bobble hats. They’re quick and easy and are good for using up the last bits of a ball of yarn. I’ve finally got a pompom maker so I can do matching bobbles! Then I thought I’d try the elephant pattern. I really liked that one and may have got a bit carried away. Aren’t they cute!? I may make more elephants. I’m wondering how many different colours I can make LOL

These little hats are great to keep my hands occupied while I’m watching TV and don’t take long to make. I may get back to other crochet projects at some point but at the moment I’m having far too much fun with these.

The big knit

I’ve crocheted a few more mini hats for The Big Knit and I’m still really enjoying making them. I made a couple more sun hats. I made four more bobble hats. I’m using bought bobbles but I really wish I could find a bobble maker that makes teeny bobbles as I’d love to make them to match the stripes better. I also made some more ‘interesting’ ones 😀

One is meant to be a lion, one is a girl and one started out as an owl but then I got distracted. My friends think it looks like something out of Star Wars LOL
Hopefully someone will like it enough to buy a smoothie with it on. I’ve been accumulating bottles to display them on too. I do love smoothies so it wasn’t a hardship, mind. That lion looks more wonky the more I look at it. Maybe I should rename it as a very suntanned man with a moustache and a weird haircut LOL

That takes me up to 16. Do you think 100 is a bit too optimistic for the deadline of end of July? It’s something to aim at…

The big knit

I’ve gone miniature this last week and have been crocheting little hats for the Innocent smoothies. The idea is that you send them off and they get put onto smoothies around Oct/Nov time and every smoothie that is sold with a hat on gets 25p for Age UK.

I thought it’d be good to do something to support the charity and it sounded like a lot of fun too. Most of the patterns on the official website are knitted but there are a nice selection of crocheted ones too and once I’d done one, I was able to improvise a couple too, using the same base pattern.

First I made the sombrero from the website, and then I started with the crown of another sombrero and made it into an ear-flap hat.Next I used that same crown pattern and made a sunhat and a garden party hat.Then I went back to the official patterns and made the shark. He turned out a bit wonky, but he’s still sharky enough so he’ll do. I also made the duck hat, which is one of my favourites.Here they all are together. After checking back on the website, I spotted that they’d put up a couple more patterns and I got so excited when I saw that one of them was a crocheted unicorn. A UNICORN!! Obviously, it had to be done. He took ages and his horn is one of the fiddliest things that I’ve ever made. I love him though so it was worth it. I’ve named him George.I may do a few simple bobble hats next before doing any more. I’m thinking of trying to improvise a bear or lion after that.

Is anyone else making tiny hats for the big knit?